Yeah, that’s the problem for sure

I have never seen more than one man take down five. However, In the 60's, 70's, and maybe early 80's before the end of quail in this area, Hopkins County & surrounding, I would bet that among conversation with the best quail shooters around here one name would come up. Johnnell was witnessed many times dropping five on the covey rise with a Remington 1100. I hunted and shot skeet with the man and he was the best.

His 1100 was cut off at 21" with a strip of white Band-aid tape running along the top of the last few inches of rib with no bead. Though he was tall and long armed the stock was about youth length. The man was fast with this gun. This 1100 looked real rough from many years of use, but I never saw it fail. I watched him on every hunt I went on with him hold down a barbed wire fence with the receiver of this gun to step over the fence. It was a tool. He might say that if you want them to stay pretty leave them at home. He had pretty guns at home.

This man was my mentor when it came to hunting and shooting. We shot thousands of hay pasture clays together. We played a race game by throwing one bird and see who hit it first. Every few birds one of us might not shoot to see if the bird was missed. On several occasions with two typical spring loaded throwers and a hand thrower we put five pigeons in the air and he about always got them all.

Jonnell is in Heaven probably sitting with Ace and Mack, two great bird dogs. RIP Jonnell.

Sad part of it was for the birds it wasn't short hunts. Money was their goal, $1 for bird on the ground, $3 for bird on the wing. They had access to land and their work they knew where birds were so they were scouted and knew where coveys were. They would crowd coveys together and it was game on. They knew every inch of the Johnson Ranch outside Odessa and I'm sure the hoped fences east of Andrews and anywhere else they found birds. Looking back it would have been wasteful and slaughter if they didn't eat them but it was all about the money to shooters. I use to hunt south of Greenwood just north of I20 and we would run covey of blues into some bobwhites and it was great mixed bag. My dad like to flush a covey and see numbers of birds and only take small percentage if covey could stand it, bad hatch we drove and bird watched.

I wish I was manly enough to know how to pump a shotgun effectively

Feel same way, My elders are so ashamed

I can shoot the chit outta a pump.


I still choose to shoot something else. Maybe if I was going to shoot crips on the streets of LA I would use a pump.

For everything else I like an auto loader or O/U. Only autos I have had trouble with were 1100’s with the O-rings. Easy fix. Beyond that, no issues with my beretta, Benelli or Browning autos.

And I still call b.s on guys killing 4-5 birds with as many shots with a pump on rising birds. Maybe if you got 3 with 1 shot and 1 on the others

I can shoot the chit outta a pump.

me too!

That's pretty funny!

I think the Benelli's are pretty cool.

My Dad and Carl Yates could do it. I never got more than 3 on a rise with my 870 he gave me.

Way back yonder in the early 60's over in Luna County New Mexico I say my Uncle Dawson get a "skillet" shot with one shot - 7 birds. They were on the ground of course. The days of plentiful quail in southwest NM are far and few between. Hunted some this year over there and we only saw 2 coveys. Got one bird - we suck. The dog was laughing his arse off.

Way, way too hard to build. Many of the older guns would be considered hand made. But, but in my case, if I’m in a bunch of doves daily, I never shoot 12 gauge, I go 20 auto, then pump 20, then pump 410 model 42, then H&R single shot 410.